Again
by Nicole Lo
Summary: Max is a shadow of what he used to be, suicidial and hollow because of what Liz did to him. Isabel can't stand to watch him wither away so she sends him some place to make it better. On the way he discovers life after Liz. Crossover fic.


**Again**

by: Nicole Lopez

(A/N: This is a story I'm starting, but I want to know if it's of interest to anyone. If it **looks good** to you, let me know. If it **looks bad**, _let me know_. This determines whether or not I will _post _the remainder of the story. I'm finishing it regardless. --NL)

After the feds found us at graduation, we tried to live a normal life, a life without powers where we only acknowledged our human half. Nothing consummated this new beginning more than Max's marriage to Liz which could be summed up in one word, perfect.

* * *

But that was in the past. It was seven years later and perfect had crumbled in the face of reality. Michael had departed from the group and Isabel was starting her new life under a new identity with Jesse. This was all to be expected except when Max lost Liz to.

Simply put, she died. It wasn't a glamorous death or even an alien-induced death. She died in a car crash after a fight with Max when he explained why he wasn't ready to be a father … again. Liz couldn't understand it and by the time he had mentioned finding his and Tess's biological child, Liz lost it. She put on her tough exterior like she used to do back in high school, held her head down, nodded quietly, took the keys off the counter and left.

Max started to call her back and tell her that he loved her, but he didn't. He thought she needed the time alone to think and that it was obvious that he loved her. Now, Max wished that he had done something.

Liz's death had changed his life to say the least. When he was with her, he had started building his own internet company. They built websites and such … things that would have been better served by someone like Alex than Max, but he had quickly learned that something in his brain was wired differently than everyone else's and he just understood things, even if he didn't know how.

Now at 34, Max no longer had majority ownership in his own multi-million dollar business and nor did he care. He went through the stages of grief, one which threatened to deplete his life earnings completely, but Max didn't care. He didn't seem to care about anything, not even his own self-inflicted brushes with death.

"Max, this is ridiculous. You have been in the hospital three times within the past two weeks. The newspapers are going wild talking about the world's favorite depressed millionaire and you … you don't even care do you?" Isabel whined, looking at her brother who had really let himself go. Long, rugged hair, an unshaven face that was starting to form clusters of dark hair. He looked like a hermit.

"You look different too." Max commented as Isabel sat at the foot of the hospital bed. A couple of plastic surgeries would do that to you, but she had to change how she looked so that no one would ever find out that she was once Isabel Evans, half-alien. "You're compromising us both by being here."

"You're my brother." She stood up and reached for his face, trying to comfort him, but he turned away. "I know that Liz's death was hard on you, but Max it's been seven years. You are almost thirty-five years old and we can't bring her back. We've all tried--"

"Why are you here?" He snapped, sitting up a little. He hated looking this fragile.

"One of these days one of your suicide attempts won't fail and … I don't want that day to be anytime soon. I want you to be able to come and visit me and meet your nephews." She explained.

"Can you just leave?"

"Max, I wasn't trying to be insensitive." Isabel stated hating that it had to come to this. "Look, there's something that you need to know about your company."

"Whatever it is, I don't care. I don't care about anything or anyone."

"Grow up." She snarled. "Don't you get it … you only own 49% of your own company." She paused to see if he would react. He didn't. "Basically Max your board is trying to take the company away from you completely by declaring you insane and unfit for the job and I can't let that happen. I can't let you lose everything."

"And you're going to stage and intervention?" Max chuckled dryly. "Well, good luck finding anyone who gives a damn."

"I'm not going to argue with you. I'm just going to tell you that as soon as you get out of this hospital, they're putting you on lithium, which you're going to take this time, and you're going on sabbatical from work to do some soul searching." Isabel threw a brochure at her brother, angrily. "You can pick the place, but you're going to see what life is really like out there for other people … and by then you're realize how asinine this whole thing is. Liz is dead Max, not you."

A few weeks later, Max found himself on an airplane to the Dominican Republic to do some peace corps, missionary-type work. He didn't care. All Isabel was doing was trading in one prison for another. Max wouldn't be happy until he was reunited again with Liz, and if that meant death then so be it.

**

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